Monday 7 March 2011

How the mortgage crisis is allowing landlords to push up rental rates

Cash-strapped adults who can't afford to get on the property ladder are being hit by rapidly rising rents, research has shown.

Strong tenant demand and a shortage of available properties are driving up prices.

And with fewer lenders giving out mortgages, the issue will only get worse as more and more find themselves needing to rent.

Forty per cent more surveyors reported increases in rents during the three months to the end of January than those who didn't, the highest level recorded by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors since it first began the survey in 1998.

Click here to read the full article How the mortgage crisis is allowing landlords to push up rental rates

NetRent Comment

We have been making these points for some time now. The problems the housing market faces will simply lead to yet more house price inflation in the future. There is already a build up of latent demand from people who cannot buy or move. On top of that builders are not building nearly enough houses. All these factors lead to a bottleneck of demand that will eventually be released, pushing house values up. Meanwhile, there will be a short to medium term gain by landlords.

It is a crazy situation that we have seen several times before.